Peter Ferrara gives us a review of recent history that is "just a tad different" from what we've been getting from Katie and company. Below is a portion of that National Review Online report:Barack Obama continues his overseas trip today in the Middle East, where the facts on the ground have recently been moving so fast hardly anyone in the U.S. has really kept up. But unheralded press reports in recent weeks establish this new reality.
The war in Iraq is over. America and her allies won. Sorry, Barack, but it is too late for you and your misguided, uninformed, anti-American netroots to surrender.
The surge that Obama opposed and said would fail has succeeded spectacularly. McCain was right about that from the beginning.
General Petraeus, leading American and Iraqi troops, has smashed al-Qaeda, which has now basically withdrawn and fled to remote hideouts in lawless, ungoverned, western Pakistan. The Sunni Awakening is now over a year old and has been widely reported. The Shia majority government of elected Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has moved brilliantly in recent months to rout the Shia militias as well, creating a broad, popular base of support for him. The Kurds continue to prosper in peace and harmony.
American troops are already coming home. As McCain reported weeks ago, the surge itself is now basically over, with the additional troops all now on their way out. This fall, more American troops will be coming home. By January, still more will have returned.
The only real question now is which U.S. forces will be stationed in long term bases in Iraq. American and Iraqi government officials are even now negotiating a permanent status of forces agreement to take effect next year that will resolve that question. The plan is for Iraqi forces to take over responsibility for all remaining Iraqi provinces by then, with American troops out of all Iraqi cities. Probably less than half of the full complement of American forces will remain in Iraq long term to back up the Iraqi military, and keep tabs on Iran.
One big remaining fly in the ointment is that Iraq continues to be under attack by Iranian special forces — which may attempt intensified attacks this fall. Iran remains unfinished business. But the brutal defeat that al Qaeda suffered in Iraq discredited it in the Arab world. As Osama bin Laden himself has said, people will follow the strong horse. It is America, not al Qaeda, that is now that strong horse...
